John Hodgson at Kirkwhelpington 1823-1833

 St Bartholomew's

This is Rev. John Hodgson's second parish as the boss man, although he was still the rector of the Jarrow/Heworth parish where he had two curates taking care of things for him. See below, his letter of resignation from the Jarrow/Heworth parish. Hodgson had a very close personal relationship with the Bishop of Durham, who at this time was 89 years old. If you're wondering how the Bishop of Durham had jurisdiction over churches in Northumberland it's because Durham is a County Palatine 
Hodgson knew this as Whelpington. It didn't become Kirkwhelpington until the 1950's.

The Bishop wanted the Hodgson family to live in a healthy rural place like this rather than the chemical works/coal mining area that was the Felling area back then.

This is the main door into the church

John Hodgson and family lived in this Vicarage for a decade.

When he came here his family consisted of 7 children, 4 boys and 3 girls, the eldest of whom, a daughter, was now 12 years of age

From "A Memoir of John Hodgson"
"He was now able to send his eldest son and daughter to school, and to engage the services of a governess for his younger girls, and for his boys, a young man of education. 

To the children themselves how beneficial, and delightful to boot, must have been the change. For those of them who had suffered so much from illness a while before, there was the healthy and bracing air of the Northumbrian hills in all its uncontaminated purity, and for all of them there were new scenes and new subjects to engage their attention at a most interesting period of their lives"

He left here to go to a nearby parish at Hartburn, but not before officially resigning from Jarrow/Hebburn..on 21st Oct 1833, 10 years after he had left it.